Language socialization in the internationally adoptive family : identities, second
languages, and learning

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Author

Fogle, Evelyn Wright.

Description

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2009.; Includes bibliographical
references.; Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. Language socialization research, or the
study of how children and other novices are socialized through language and to use language,
has long acknowledged that socialization is a bidirectional process (Ochs, 1988; Ochs
& Schieffelin, 1984; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986); however, relatively few
studies directly address the ways in which novices socialize experts in interaction and how
socialization processes are collaborative and co-constructed. The current study begins to fill
this gap by examining interactions in three internationally adoptive families where native
English-speaking parents have adopted children at school age from Russian-speaking regions.
Specifically, I show how school-age children play a role in shaping family discourse by
resisting, eliciting, and negotiating narrative routines, language-related episodes, and
language choice in interaction with their parents.; Three adoptive families (10 adoptees, aged
4-17, and 5 adults) participated in the study. Each family consisted of English-speaking
parents and at least one Russian-speaking child adopted at the age of five or older. Each
family self-recorded mealtimes and other family interactions (e.g., literacy events, carpool,
and game time) for six months, recording a total of about 25 hours of interaction. Regular
interviews were also conducted with family members. Data from each family were considered
individually as a part of a collective case study and were analyzed longitudinally to identify
patterns of interaction in each family's conversations.; Findings from this study contribute
to an understanding of how second language learners actively shape their learning environments
at the same time that they take on interactional roles and construct identities. By viewing
learning as a process of participation and identity formation, I conclude that for the
international adoptees socialized in middle-class American families in this study, learning
encompasses not only acquiring linguistic, pragmatic, and sociocultural knowledge, but also
how to take on agentive roles in obtaining and negotiating such knowledge, which can have
implications for classroom second language learning. The study further examines differences in
routine talk about the day and spontaneous narratives, the social functions of
language-related episodes, and relationships between language competence and language
negotiation.

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